Last week was the 60th annual conference & exposition of the Air Traffic Control Association of the USA (ATCA), in Washington DC. It’s always an interesting event, bringing together ATM professionals, suppliers and commentators from all over the world to discuss the key issues of the day.

NATS experienced a difficult end to 2013 following the technical problem at Swanwick that saw a loss of 10% in airspace capacity for a few hours. But, with the start of a new year comes the chance to refocus on moving forward with the positive agenda that we’ve been able to pursue over recent years.

The ATCA conference and exhibition showed that the the US ATC operation is staffed by dedicated people who are aware of the challenges of NextGen but are tired of a governance model.

Fifteen minutes don’t go by without another colleague or friend asking me, “What in the world is going on in your country?!?

We urgently need regulatory reform and common standards to stimulate contestable markets and accelerate progress across Europe, rather than yet more regulation and legislation.